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Popular Threads
I tend to agree with Dan Carlin that our torture of people, whether they "deserve" it or not is an extremely shameful action and reflects badly on us as a society. If the people that support this (along with things like detaining people without due process for years at a time) had the courage of their convictions, they would be building torture and detainment centers in Kansas City, not keeping them outside of the United States or secretly operating them in ex-communist nations. It seems to me that the fact that these things are questionable is self-evident since we aren't willing to actually do them here and that even their proponents are ashamed of them, even if they will not admit it in public.
As much as the United States has never lived up to its lofty ideals in its treatment of many groups, this embrace of all of those things that we considered to be representative of "evil" empires in our "War on Terror" is not going to seen favorably in future decades, assuming we don't continue our self-propelled slide into dictatorship. The terrorists are simply an excuse for this. As tragic as the death of a few thousand people in New York City was (and I am and was as appalled by it as anyone), it has been used as an excuse to engage in behavior by various governmental parties that we should never tolerate as citizens.
Where does he come up with that I wonder. Sounds like the same lame argument some make to supress all other rights...Miranda warnings, exclusionary rules, right to counsel, etc...(until a right winger becomes a criminal defendant! Then they want all the rights they can get, right Rush? Hey Olie North, what up!!)
Historically, time and time again the Court has denied rights (a la Scalia et al.) only to reverse itself years later by subsequent Courts. Segregation; child labor laws; minimum wage laws; concentration camps for Japanese Americans...all issues that won the day at first, only to swept aside by the Courts and the public.
Good thing they didn't make the same mistake this time. Go Supremes!
I had a close friend of mine, who is pretty far to the right, tell me that these people didn't deserve rights and he laughed when I discussed the ethics of denying rights to prisoners (or human beings) because they were non-citizens detained by us. He actually rolled his eyes when I mentioned the the principles of various Founding Fathers (peace be on them) that had seen what a dictatorial crown could do when it wanted. As far as he is concerned (and many others, I know) "terrorists" that we capture don't deserve rights and can rot in jail, without a trial or legal counsel, forever while we torture them all that we want.
It saddens me and I'm not even engaging in hyperbole here. It really does sadden me and makes me worried (more) for this country's future that this seems to be a common set of opinions.